Power Rangers: The Power Lives On
by AWArmstrong
Summary: An AU fiction where the Power Coins are real. The Rangers are a team of people from all around the United States, and they are snatched up by the government when they can activate the power inside the coins. They are hunted by the man that discovered the coins, a dangerous, demented doctor who wants the Power Coins back.
1. Chapter 1: A Little Girl Lost

In an underground lab, sterile and completely controlled, a machine hummed with electrical energy. This machine was a charging mechanism of uncertain origin, with parts from all over the world stuck in it's metal frame. The machine itself was attached to a glass box that contained a smaller silver box. Inside the silver box was a power that no one had seen for many years. Only two people were in the lab, the first was a young woman with dark brown hair and glasses, pressing buttons on a control panel for the box, observing the electronic readouts. The second was a man, only slightly older than the woman, with blonde hair, observing the silver box, waiting for a reaction.

"Bring them up to fifty percent power," the man stated to the woman, his assistant.

"Yes Doctor, fifty percent power," the woman stated as she twisted a knob on the control panel. The readout showing the power input rose, showing that fifty percent of the maximum power the charging mechanism could produce was flowing into the silver box. "Fifty percent power, stable," the woman said confidently.

The Doctor pondered the situation for a moment, watching for a reaction from the box. There was none. Frustrated, the Doctor stated to his assistant, "One hundred percent power."

"But Doctor, the last time we went to one hundred percent," the assistant began, hesitation showing in her voice. A quick look from the angry eyes of the Doctor silenced her, and she twisted the knob slowly, watching the readings. When the reading stopped at one hundred, she immediately removed her hand from the knob. She waited for what she thought was next, but nothing happened. Breathing a sigh of relief she stated, "One hundred percent, stable."

The Doctor smiled, his dream had come true, he was finally able to bring an ancient power back to the world. The assistant joined him, watching the small arcs of electricity wrap around the silver box. This was the moment they had both worked towards for years. A loud beeping akin to a warning signal from a crashing ship alerted the two scientists to a problem. The assistant ran to the readout, panic showing in her face.

"Power spiking out of control, one hundred twenty-five percent! One hundred fifty!" the assistant yelled as she flipped a switch labeled Emergency Shut-Off. After the fifth flip, she screamed, "I can't shut it down! The system is overloaded!"

"The power couplings are fused now. No one can stop it. Leave now," the Doctor stated coldly.

"But Doctor-" the assistant began, unwilling to leave her boss.

"Leave!" the Doctor interrupted loudly. The assistant's feet moved on their own towards the elevator. Pressing the button for the ground floor, her last sight of the lab was the Doctor placing his hands on the safety glass surrounding the silver box. The Doctor, one he heard the elevator doors close, rested his forehead on the glass cage and whispered, "You are complete again, but at what cost?"

Once the elevator opened to the outside air, the assistant ran down the dirt road leading to the elevator in the middle of nowhere. Acid pumping through her legs couldn't stop her, but a cramp in her calf brought her to a painful halt about a mile away from where she had just ran from. As she hit the ground, an explosion rocked the earth under her. Her eyes snapped back to the elevator, which had flame and smoke pouring out of it's top.

"No," she whispered, her head sinking to the ground, tears flowing despite her wish to control them. "Doctor, why did you have to stay? The coins were overloaded and were going to take you down, you had to have known that."

Lying on the ground, unable to stand, and trying beyond all hope to hold the tears back, the assistant remembered her boss and love, the pain of loss hitting her like a freight train. The sound of car engines brought her attention back to the present, and she looked up. Three black government issue trucks slid to a stop on the gravel, kicking up dust. The assistant managed to get to her knees, but couldn't stand. Two dark haired men, wearing black suits exited the back of one of the vehicles and helped her stand. A third, the one that looked to be in charge, came from the driver's seat of that vehicle, approaching the limping scientist and her helpers.

"Ms. Thompson, please come with us," the man stated, more of an order than a request. Ms. Thompson had no choice but to nod, and the two suits helped her into the back seat of the vehicle. The lead suit pressed his hand to his ear, saying, "We need fire suppression and recovery teams at the Charlie site, now. Ms. Thompson has been secured, the status of Doctor Miller is unconfirmed at this time."

Within a few hours, the fires were put out and excavation of the underground lab was well underway. The construction crews used machinery to dig out the first thirty feet of ground, but when there was evidence of artificial construction, the workers began digging with shovels and picks carefully, as if they were archeologists digging in ruins. One of the workers suddenly stopped as his pick hit metal. He carefully wiped the dirt away, revealing a silver box. Carefully opening it, the worker looked inside. Six flat, golden objects glinted in the sunlight. Closing the box, the man saying loudly into his walkie that he had them and the suits should come get them. Moments later, five men in black suits grabbed the silver box and placed it into a black padded suitcase.

A day later, and the assistant found herself and the medallions in a new home, far from prying eyes, under an abandoned airport in the middle of nowhere. This place was just as sterile, and more controlled than her previous lab. The projects that were underway here were entirely outside of the public's eye, hidden by layers of bureaucracy that would make any conspiracy theorist weep with joy. The assistant's new home was drab, with the silver case for the coins replaced by a stainless steel box that had three different locks responding to her voice, a code she had memorized, and her left index fingerprint. The box lay on a desk with a desktop computer for note taking. There were various measuring devices, along the opposite wall of the desk, with an X-Ray machine and printer just down the hall in a room specially designed for such a thing. The door to her room was made of solid steel, the floors and walls painted white. The only colors that stood out in the blank room were the black of her desk chair and the off-white of the phone that hung on the wall. The assistant sighed as she took in the details of the room. This place felt cold and lifeless, a perfect match for how she felt. The phone on the wall began ringing after she entered the room completely. Her body moved on instinct and picked the loud electronic device up.

"Janice Thompson, you will be studying the coins under strict surveillance. Your government is very interested in what technology they contain and how they can best be used in our interests," the monotone voice droned through the phone. Ms. Thompson sighed again at the order.

"I can't promise any sort of breakthroughs other than what we had discovered before the " Janice replied, unable to say the rest of the sentence. Even in her half-dead mental state, she couldn't believe that Doctor Miller was gone. The voice quietly continued, sounding a little warmer.

"I understand this is hard for you, but all of your notes were lost after the explosion at the lab. You will need to write them all again."

"I don't remember all of the things that we wrote, but we had studied their uncharged states extensively," Janice continued, trying to shuffle through her memories for all the information that her and the Doctor gathered.

"We need those notes as soon as possible, Ms. Thompson," the voice requested one last time before hanging up, leaving only a dial tone. Janice sat at the computer and began typing, frustrated with her situation. She reminisced about how Doctor Miller told her that he didn't want his research being used for some pompous governmental bureaucrat, but for the good of all. Janice felt that the work was good for her though, allowing her time to reconnect and say goodbye to the late Doctor Miller.

Days, and weeks passed before Janice was confident about the complete notations that she had typed up. With that out of the way, she finally opened the stainless steel box that the coins came in. Her initial reaction was shock, because the coins looked different than the ones that were in the silver box, but after measuring all the relevant dimensions they were the same coins. Quickly running to the X-Ray room, she took pictures of each of the coins from a top and side view. Those X-Rays proved invaluable for her notes, and she typed furiously for hours on end, only taking breaks to take more measurements. She continued typing and measuring, making sure to take pictures of each stage of the process. When she finished, she picked up the phone and called for a briefing of the administration.

The administration level she was led to by the man in a suit was a level she had never been on before. At that time, she had stuck to her lab and her living quarters, wasting very little time exploring. The suited man opened the door to a dark-colored conference room, with a U-Shaped table centered around a projector. Janice was busy setting up her presentation when older men in various colored suits and ties began taking seats around the table. When she was finished with setup, she waited for the noise of conversation to die down before she began.

"Gentlemen, I have discovered something completely new about the coins. In their uncharged state, they are just flat pieces of an exotic, golden metal. In their charged state though," Janice stated as she put the first sheet up on the projector, " the coins expand in certain places, roughly in the middle, forming a raised shape that as you can see, takes the shape of six different creatures. Three of the shapes have been identified as prehistoric relatives of lizards, otherwise known as dinosaurs, two are prehistoric mammals, and the last one is a yet unidentified mythical creature that seems to be related to lizards. All of these forms seem to be artist renditions-"

At that point, one of the men sitting on the start of the curve of the U-shaped table began laughing, "Hold on, are you kidding us? I remember these shapes. My son was obsessed with this show as a little kid. What was it called Oh yeah, Power Rangers. He still has the plastic kid's meal promotional things we got at a fast food place."

The room exploded with laughter at the man's comment. Janice sighed and waited for the noise to die down, pushing down her exasperation to remain calm. Eventually, the entire gathering realized it wasn't a joke and the scientist was serious. This quieted the disbelief in the room and gave Ms. Thompson the undivided attention of some very powerful men.

"The show that you refer to was originally titled 'Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger' in Japan. There is a reason the coins in the show were so similar. One of the workers, an amateur artist, took impressions of these coins much the same way that one would make an impression of a name on a well worn grave."

"Wait a minute I thought the coins had depleted the charge that they held. 'Exotic, golden metal' I believe were your words a few minutes ago," the man at the curve stated loudly.

"Yes, over the past ten years, what little charge they had left has dissipated and they were just flat pieces of metal. Ten years ago, they still had enough charge to get a small impression of an outline. The worker filled in the detail and took the designs to the producer of the Zyuranger show in Tokyo. Uncharged, X-rays show one solid coin-shaped block of metal. Charged, though," Janice said as she put the next sheet on the projector, showing a network of small white lines inside the coins, "These impressions have wires and one tiny black-box that I assume acts as a capacitor and holds nanotechnology advanced well beyond anything we have. This technology holds powers of mythical proportions."

"Excuse me, but what exactly do you mean by 'mythical'?" another man, this one closest to Janice, asked.

"Nearly every single myth of warriors with supernatural powers defending people against supernatural threats has one thing in common," Janice answered, her voice picking up speed and volume from excitement of her profound discovery, "These coins are in all of them. Hercules wore the lion skin cloak that was latched by one of these coins."

"You mention in your original notes that an archeological dig that originally found these coins, where was that?" the man seated at the head of the curve asked.

"The coins were found in the aftermath of an earthquake in Japan," the scientist responded.

"How were you involved in their excavation?" another man questions.

"Doctor Jackson Miller got a call from a personal friend about a huge scientific find in the hills of Japan. I was his assistant at the time and went with him," Janice explains. An unseen nod permeated the room, agreeing with the logic set forth by the woman.

"Yes, we all know your history with the late doctor Miller, but how did everyone else end up dead at that site except the artist that copied those designs, you, and the good doctor?" another administrator asked.

"Dumb luck, really. The artist was away from the dig to sell the designs while Doctor Miller and I were out getting more supplies for the dig. While we were out in a nearby town, another earthquake struck the dig site. When we got back, everyone was dead from a fire caused by a leaking gas tank. Dr. Miller and I took the coins with us after the police were finished investigating."

"Alright, I do have one more question for you Ms. Thompson," the instigator of the laughter probed, "How do we harness the power that you and Doctor Miller used to charge these coins?"

"All my research with the myths that involved the coins indicates that the mythological person could use the power inside the coins, but no one else could. Since the similarities of the stories that I researched were so close, I would assume that the coins responded to a specific sequence of DNA. That would mean in the black boxes there are tiny scanners that identify the DNA of the holder of the coin," the scientist continued, "Every story has the coins close to the body of the warriors in the myth. The hilt of a sword, on a necklace or a bracelet. I believe that the coins need close proximity to identify the genetic coding."

"Outside of that proximity, how do we know which person will react with which coin?" came another question from another man.

"We don't. The only way to know if the genetic sequence is right is if the person is there and in contact with the coin," Janice replied.

Chuckling, the man closest to the scientist stated, "There are over six billion people in this world and less than a thousand of them know that this place even exists. How do you expect us to get all those people running through here without them realizing that our government is hiding a big secret?"

"You just need a sample of DNA, blood or saliva would work. If my theory is correct, any sort of reaction we get out of the coins would give us the people we need. I assume that you gentlemen can make that happen."


	2. Chapter 2: This is Where It Begins

Darkness surrounded Janice as she floated in mid-air, her lab coat moving because of some unseen current in the void. A voice, horrifyingly familiar, penetrated the darkness, finding it's way into her mind. She withdrew from the sound, because it belonged to the late Doctor Miller, but it sounded harsher than she remembered.

_Janice...Find the coins and bring them to me. I will use them to make sure that no one will ever bother us again. We can research them, get them to work. Together we will rule the world with their power!_

"No, no one is supposed to use them like that! No two people are ever supposed to have that much power!" Janice yelled into the darkness at the voice that surrounded her.

_But Janice, you know that those coins are more trouble than they are worth, just bring them to me and I will relieve that burden from you._

"No! I won't!" she screamed again at the darkness. Suddenly, a charred face erupted from the shadow in front of the scientist. It was the remains of the face that once belonged to Doctor Miller.

"Bring them to me!" the face screamed one last time before everything turned bright white.

"Janice wake up!" Janice jolted awake, the voice of her assistant, Timothy Kingston, jerking her out of the nightmare.

"What?! Tim, was I asleep?" Janice asked, still recovering from the face she saw in her dream.

"Yes, yes you were, and you were jerking around like you weren't having a good dream," Tim stated, relieved that Doctor Thompson was finally awake.

"I'm sorry if I worried you. I guess I have been working too hard... I think I'm gonna get some coffee," She replied, wiping the sleep from her eyes. Standing, she moved to the coffee pot at the back of the lab. During the past three months, huge boxes of DNA samples had been moved in, requiring the desk to be moved to accommodate them. The pile of samples was only getting larger, and there was no way to know if they were any closer to the answers they desperately needed. The first box to arrive was those that worked in the office. Janice purposefully delayed testing those samples because she didn't want the administration thinking that they had the power of demi-gods in their complete control if she found the coins reacted to those DNA samples.

_I have to figure out which DNA sequences match. I just need to figure out how to get the coins out of here once these people are found. I know that the coins and those people that they match to aren't safe here, _Janice thought as she poured herself a cup of bitter coffee, thinking about the dream that she had. Once her coffee was poured, she put on a new pair of latex gloves and began the process of testing the coins again. The test consisted of waving a sample over each coin in turn, and once there hadn't been any reaction, she passed the same to Timothy so he could record the non-reaction in the computer along with the name on the sample. The process became a habit for her. Janice was afraid her hands were still moving when she slept. She was the only one that ever touched the coins, knowing that none of the coins reacted in any way to her presence, using herself as a control. The closest Timothy ever came to the coins was five feet, the distance between the two people. She had made it clear that he was not to touch the coins when she was introduced to him by the administration. The process had gone on for at least six months, without a single reaction from thousands upon thousands of samples.

_Do these coins even still work or did the recharging process damage them?_ Dr. Thompson asked herself for the millionth time. She had this feeling that one sample would eventually work, but it was going to take a long time to find out which one. _Oh well, they say that nothing worthwhile ever comes easy._

"This is worse than a needle in a haystack," she mumbled to no one in particular.

"This is more like taking all the hay in the world and stacking it up. Then hiding six needles in that," Timothy replied. They both chuckled a little at the small dialogue. That particular conversation had been driven into the ground over the past three months, yet it was still got the only laugh that they ever really had. Punching in the names and numbers of the samples handed to him, Timothy continued, "One of these days, you are going to have to find a better way of doing this."

"And one of these days, you're gonna have to find a way to get me out of this lab," Janice replied, a small smile on her face. Timothy stood, stretching his back and neck, popping them and his knuckles. Janice, realizing how stiff she was, leaned back in her chair to stretch. Hearing the popping and cracking, she couldn't resist commenting.

"You know that's bad for y-Crap!" Janice yelled as her chair slipped out from under her. Timothy tried to catch her, but the doctor and gravity had a disagreement, with gravity winning by a landslide. Janice had managed to kick the underside of the desk, along with banging her elbow and head on the floor in the space of less than a second.

"Ow " she mumbled as her assistant helped her up.

"You ok, doc?" he asked.

"Yeah, I was just being stupid. These chairs with wheels aren't as stable as they should be," she replied, getting to her feet and dusting her coat and pants off.

"Alright, let's make sure nothing went flying when your foot hit." Timothy stated, looking around the lab.

"Yeah, good idea. None of the samples are broken, that's always a good thing. Gloves, masks, goggles, all the medical stuff is here. Wait " Janice said as she examined the box the coins were in.

"What?" comes the reply from her assistant.

"We're missing P.M. number 2. The one that looked like a wooly mammoth," she said, looking all over her desk. Standing the doctor's chair back to the correct position, Timothy saw a golden glint on the floor under what was the back of the chair.

"I think I found it," he stated as he picked it up. His back turned to the doctor, he was frozen in place.

"What's the matter Tim?" Janice questioned looking around his back.

"I think my DNA is the one this coin reacts with," he said, staring at the coin in his hand. Ebony static discharges emerged from the coin, but Timothy wasn't withdrawing from pain that would be caused by normal static. It was the most fascinating display Janice had ever seen.

"That has to be the reaction that we were looking for," Janice said as Timothy gave the coin back to her, the black static immediately ceasing when it was firmly in her hands.

"I don't know why or how," the stunned assistant replied, unable to comprehend what he had just seen with his own eyes. They both marveled at what had just transpired, silence taking the room by storm. They were only interrupted by the sound of the metal door opening and a guard stepping in.

"Timothy Kingston, please come with us," the guard ordered, "We have some questions that need to be answered and some tests we need to perform."

"Tests? What tests?" Janice asked defensively, stepping between the guard and her assistant. The guard refused to say another word. Dr. Thompson was beginning to become angry as she repeated the question. No one was going to take her assistant without her permission. Timothy must have seen the anger flashing in his boss's eyes because he took a quick step around her.

"Doctor Thompson, it's okay. Keep looking for the other five needles. I'll be back," Timothy said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She flashed her eyes angrily at the guard again before nodding in agreement. She stood there, coin in hand for a few moments, anger and questions mixing with the wonder of what had happened moments ago. Not knowing what else to do, she sat down, placing the coin that reacted with Timothy separate from the others. They had found one needle, now they just needed five more. She began quickly testing the other coins, using the inspiration of finding one as motivation for finding the others.

A knock interrupted the rhythm of her testing, forcing the doctor to observe the door as it opened. Her assistant, Timothy, entered the room they both called home, looking no worse for the wear. The doctor rushed to hug her friend.

"You're okay," she whispered as they shared an embrace.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Timothy responded, separating himself from his boss. He closed the door and continued, "They just asked me some weird questions about my family history, and took some more blood."

Both returned to their appropriate stations at the desk, with Timothy commenting about the Doctor's lack of housekeeping. He had a mountain of samples to file, and it would be a miracle if he could get through the day without contracting carpal tunnel. The doctor smiled, reassuring Timothy that he was missed, even for an hour or two.

"Well, now that we have proven they still work, we have to find a way to tap into the power in them," Janice stated as she continued testing the samples provided.

"That's gonna be the interesting part, although I don't think it will be that hard. When I had that coin in my hand, I heard a word over and over in my head. It was more like a whisper, but it kept saying 'mastodon'," Timothy replied offhandedly, focusing completely on his data entry duties.. Janice stopped her testing and gingerly picked up the medallion that Timothy touched earlier.

"Can't hurt," she mumbled. She stood, getting a refill on her coffee. Standing over Timothy, she palmed the coin and pretended to be interested in his filing, placing her hand on his shoulder. "What was that word again?"

"What 'mastodon'?" Timothy replied. When the word finished rolling off of his tongue, the black static enveloped her assistant's form, but it didn't seem to interrupt his movements or really catch his attention at all. Apparently, the transformation was only noticeable to onlookers. Either that, or Timothy was a little dense. Janice preferred to believe the former. When the transformation was complete, Timothy was in a form-fitting, single piece outfit that looked to be made of spandex. His hands were covered with tight fitting gloves, and flexible boots covered his feet. He was even wearing what seemed to be a shiny helmet with a shaded oblong visor.

The entire outfit was completely black, with two exceptions. First, in the middle of the torso area of the outfit, was a golden embossed design that perfectly matched the design of the mastodon on the coin. The other colors came from the helmet, with stylized golden eyes above silvery tusks that wrapped around the underside of the visor. The visor itself was almost a complete half-circle, with the only break in the flat side coming from a short, silvery trunk. Janice was fascinated by the transformation and could only watch as the outfit formed from the static. She gently gave the helmet a tap when she had observed all the other details. This jerked Timothy from his focus.

"What?" he questioned sharply.

"Um," Janice stammered and just pointed at the reflective metal of the desk where the coin sat before her experiment. Following her finger to the point that he knew the coin had been resting, Timothy asked the only logical question.

"Where'd the coin go?" As he stood to begin looking around the room, Tim caught his reflection in the desk, "What the crud? Where did I get this helmet? For that matter, where did I get the unitard?" The examination of the suit brought on the next question, "How do I get it off?"

"I hadn't thought about that," Janice admitted, nervously biting her lip. "Maybe there is a keyword that undoes the transformation?"

"Oh boy, this is going to be fun," Timothy said as he scratched the top of the helmet like he would his head, "Power down... revert... undo," Tim said clearly to no avail. The suit was stuck for the moment, and although Timothy thought the suit was impressive, he did need to use the bathroom.

"That's not working obviously," the doctor said, trying to think of a way to assist her assistant, "Wait, here's a thought, what if you just try to take off the helmet?"

"There are no clasps or zippers or anything like that anywhere on this thing," Timothy replied, feeling around the helm, panic finding it's way into his voice.

"Just try pulling it off," Janice suggested, not seeing any other way to remove the helmet.

"Okay, but it isn't going to work," Timothy commented as he reached under the helmet to push. While pushing, the suit pulled upward into the helmet, revealing Tim's normal apparel underneath the suit. When the helmet was completely pushed from her assistant's head, a flash of ebony luminescence blinds the doctor momentarily, leaving Timothy standing with the medallion in his hand. Observationally, Timothy stated, "That was strange."

A flash of brilliance hit the doctor, and her eyes lit up. She began looking through the box of samples from the laboratory and all of it's employees.

"Doctor, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for your DNA sample," Janice replied to the question as she dug through the box, gingerly sitting the padded containers for the samples on the desk. Timothy sat the coin down at his station before assisting his boss in doing so. Doctor Thompson found the sample she was looking for, along with another sample that she had just finished testing, and rushed out the door. Timothy followed her, completely unaware of her plan, but doing his best to keep up through the labyrinth of corridors.

"Earth to Doctor, can you tell me where we are going?" Tim probed as he quickly walked. The doctor never answered, only inspecting the nameplates for each room as they passed.

"And...genetics! Yes!" she exclaimed, and swiped her keycard at the door reader. It refused to open, so she knocked loudly. An graying, older man answered the door, which Janice forced herself past. "Given two DNA samples, how quickly could you compare the differences in the second chromosome?"

"Well, I would need to factor out certain things," the stunned older gentlemen answered, "but I could give you a comparison within an few minutes. Why?"

Within an hour, Janice had the information she needed. She had set up a presentation with the administration, and was dragging Timothy along with her.

"Okay, I understand why you need to be there, but why do I have to be there?" he asked, following her quick pace. He was still confused about her revelation, but he assumed all would be explained later.

"You still have the coin right?" she asked excitedly, holding onto the papers she needed for her presentation tightly.

"No, crap! I left it in the lab. I'll be right back," Timothy replied, thinking for a moment.

"Ugh, are you kidding me?! Fine, meet me on level three, conference room C, and hurry!" she exclaimed as her assistant began running down the hall. _I can find those other five needles, I just need some more time,_ Janice thought as she entered the elevator, pressing the button for the aforementioned floor. Quickly setting up, all eyes were on Janice as she watched the men take their seats. She greeted the men with, "Good evening gentlemen. I've called this conference because I found a way to exponentially decrease our time in finding the six people that the DNA sequencers in the coins require to activate."

"Wait a minute, are you saying you found someone that can activate the coins?" the man closest to her asked.

"Actually I found someone that can activate one of the coins," she replied, "I may not have stated this before but I believe every coin is activated by a different sequence."

"We know your assistant caused a reaction in one of the coins, but how do you know how to activate them?" the man at the tip of the U-shaped table questioned.

"Well that was an accident, but point is we know how to do it," she replied after a moment, trying to slow questioning until Timothy could return from the lab. She placed the first transparency sheet on the projector, watching the door. "When compared to a DNA sequence that does not activate any of the coins, my assistant has an abnormality in his second chromosome."

"I'm sure that means something to you, Doctor Thompson, but most of us here are not that educated in genetics. Please explain," the man next to her stated, his voice showing exasperation.

"Chromosome 2 or the second chromosome is the chromosome that is believed to define us as human. This abnormality, something I like to call the A-Factor, is what activates the coins."

"So those with this, A-Factor, aren't human?" the question came from one of the other men seated.

"No, I am not saying that," Janice continued as she saw her assistant enter the room very quietly. Waving him forward, she stated to the men gathered, "Meet Timothy Kingston, a 70 inch tall male with green eyes and brown hair. He was born July 19 to Laura and Foster Kingston in a small hospital located north of Denver, Colorado. He attended class at his local high school, graduated from college. His IQ tests show that he has slightly above average intelligence. I personally know he has a predilection for putting too much sugar in his coffee. There is absolutely nothing different about him. The only real difference between him and me is that the coin chose him."

The men sat quietly, pondering the information that was given. After a few moments, the man sitting closest to Janice asked, "Mr. Kingston, would you be willing to provide us with a demonstration of the coin activating?"

"Yes, I believe I can do that," Timothy stated after an approving nod from Janice. Holding the medallion between his forefinger and thumb so all present could see, Timothy quietly said, "Mastodon."

The silence from the room was deafening.

"Now, the suit seems to be made of nothing more than black, form-fitting cloth. The helmet seems to be made of some kind of hard plastic or maybe even Kevlar," Janice continued her presentation, touching each part in turn. Timothy spun at her suggestion, showing the men gathered the back of the suit. "Now Timothy, would you like to tell these men how heavy these clothes feel?"

"To be honest, it feels like I am wearing light athletic wear, but the helmet isn't even noticeable," Timothy relayed the information as he was thinking about it, "In fact, the only time I even notice the helmet is when I try to touch my head."

"So the cloth is relatively weightless?" a voice from Janice's right asked.

"Yes sir, if it makes any sense, it only feels like I'm wearing enough clothing not to be naked. The only time I notice any different is by looking at the clothes or when I look into a reflective surface," Tim replied, crossing his arms. Most of the men nod in agreement or rub their chins in contemplation.

"So how long would it take, Doctor, to make these comparisons and have the results in a usable form?" another voice questioned the doctor.

"The process could still take months, but that number is down from the years or even decades it could have taken before this discovery."


	3. Chapter 3: Heard News That You're Dead

A year later, in a small town in Washington state, it was a cool morning. A blond man in a long, forest green trench coat, named Kendall Pickett, left his favorite coffee shop, holding onto a mug of his favorite caffeinated beverage as if it was essential to his existence. Taking a sip, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the warm liquid flowing down his throat. When he turned the corner at the end of the block, four men in black riot suits grabbed him and shoved him into a similarly colored van. Tires squealing, the van took off, leaving the coffee draining on the sidewalk.

Two hours later, in a city in Ohio, a chubby, dark-haired man, named William Andrews sat in his room, typing furiously on a keyboard. The man had been writing a story for the last year, and was within a few keystrokes of being finished. With his last letter, the door to his room was kicked inward. The man stood with his hands up as six SWAT team members entered his room, yelling at him to freeze. A man in a black suit came in behind the police-like team.

"Mr. Andrews, come with us," the man ordered. William hit the save button on his computer and walked slowly around from behind his computer desk. William wasn't sure what he did, but it probably had something to do with his internet history.

Around the same time, on an Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Major Katherine Rodriguez was flying high in her F-14 for a training mission. It was so peaceful this high up, a fact that comforted Katherine as she focused on flying the plane. A call came over the radio, breaking the woman's concentration.

"Whiskey Three Four, this is base. Come in Whiskey Three Four," a male voice resounded through the speakers. Sighing with annoyance, Katherine flipped the switch that turned on her side of the radio.

"Base, this is Whiskey Three Four, what's the problem?" she stated.

"Rodriguez, we got a one-star and a suit that want to talk to you," the voice responded.

"Can't you tell them I'm busy or something? Come on Carlisle, help me out here," she pleaded.

"They said it was pretty important. They said that you were supposed to land immediately. I looked at the papers, everything looks legit," Carlisle said to her. Since today was the day that flight control decided to actually follow the rules, Katherine had no choice but to land. On the way down, she thought about what a General and a crony could need to talk to her about. The only thing she could think of was a man she had met at a bar a few nights ago. That sent her into a panic, because the next morning, she found out he was an enlisted man. If there was one thing the military didn't tolerate, it was fraternization. She was afraid she would lose everything that she had worked so hard for over the past ten years, but she took a deep breath as she entered the control tower, trying to calm her nerves.

On a sunny afternoon on Miami Beach, a woman with a tanned complexion and lightened hair sat with her best friend, enjoying the sun and the sand. They had talked themselves silly, so now it was time to relax and enjoy a cool glass of lemonade on the beach. Leaned back, with eyes hidden under shades, Trudy Tanner was at peace listening to the waves wash upon the shore. A shadow interfered with her sunbathing, but Trudy didn't mind until it didn't move anywhere.

"Uh, hello? You're in my light," the woman stated without opening her eyes. The shadow still refused to move, so she sat up. She was going to have words with the person, until she saw it was a man in a dark suit and shades, looking stiff and very official. The man held a government issued badge, with the words FBI stamped on a white and blue card in the same wallet. She hoped he would go away when she said, "Look, if this is about Jimmy, I haven't seen or heard from him in like, months."

"Ms. Tanner, I must insist you come with me," the agent, uninterested in what she had to say, responded, holding his hand out to help her out of the chair.

That night, in Mobile, Alabama, a short, red-haired man named Christopher Jones was in a local bar, shooting the best game of pool in his life. His buddy was already down fifty bucks, betting ten dollars a ball. He hadn't noticed the three men in black suits enter the smoke-filled, dirty bar or approach the table. He focused on getting the cue lined up, and took a breath to steady his shot.

"Eight ball, corner pocket," Chris stated before shooting. The ball ricocheted off of a side before being aimed perfectly at the corner. He was so focused on the ball that he was genuinely surprised to see a hand reach down and stop it before it could complete what was otherwise a perfect journey. He was angry with the hand, and whoever it belonged to would be paying for the intrusion. Following the arm up, Chris put a lid on his anger when he noticed there was a man with a CIA badge and name card attached to the arm. Leaning the cue against the pool table, Chris finished the last of his beer before following the gentlemen out.

An hour later, Christopher, Trudy, Kendall, William, and Katherine were all sitting on a plane, silently contemplating their situation. No one had really told them what was going on, but they were all informed that their government needed them and them alone. Kendall was the first to break the silence by turning to William, who seemed to be the least comfortable in his chair.

"So how'd they get you?" the coffee fanatic asked the writer.

"I was sitting in my room, typing my novel, when a SWAT team came through my door like so many Kool-Aid men," William replied, aggravated at the way he was plucked from his life.

"Oh yeah, that's better than being yanked off the street and shoved into a rapist van. I didn't even get to finish my coffee," Kendall said, his voice slightly indignant. That sparked a conversation between them all about who they were, where they were from, and how they ended up on the same plane. During the conversation, Janice Thompson and Timothy Kingston joined the five, along with an older agent carrying a metal briefcase. The five quieted, scrutinizing the three that intruded into their private conversation.

"I assume everyone has made their introductions," Janice said, breaking the ice. "I am Doctor Janice Thompson, and this is my assistant, Timothy Kingston. I want to be the first to apologize for the way you were plucked from your lives. Sometimes, urgent matters of state cause the government to lose what little brains it has left."

Trudy raised her hand, and Janice nodded at her to speak, "Look, I dunno what kinda weirdo game this is, but I wanna know why you guys took us."

Janice nodded in agreement, opening the suitcase that the agent presented. Taking out a glass case, Janice displayed five of the six coins to the passengers. William, upon seeing the medallions, instantly became overjoyed, his voice reaching a fever pitch.

"Those are Zyuranger power coins! Are you telling me that we are Power Rangers?" Janice nodded, and William continued even louder, "No way! Slather me in honey and feed me to the bears. I can't believe the government chose us as a team of real live Power Rangers! I call dibs on red! I've always wanted to be the leader."

"Calm down nerd," Trudy condescendingly said to William, "There's no such thing as Power Rangers. If these coins do anything, they are probably filled with supplementary adrenaline, and if we touch them, they'll probably just inject that into our systems, getting us hooked on the high like a morphine addict."

All eyes stared at the girl from Florida.

"What? I was going to be a drug counselor."

"In any case," Janice continued, shaking her head. The team was off to a rocky start. "William's guess is the closest to actual fact. These were the inspiration behind Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and it's counterpart in America." William began to speak again, but the doctor interrupted him, "No, you can't choose what color you are, the coins do that for you. So each of you will need to touch each coin until we figure out which coin is yours."

Each of the five waved their hands over each of the coins, with colored static discharges pointing out which coin belonged to whom. That person then relieved the case of their medallion and sat down. When Chris withdrew the last coin, the colors were chosen. Chris was red, and had the coin with a stylized Tyrannosaurus Rex on it. William was blue, a fact which he noted as obvious and his second choice, the Triceratops coin was his. Katherine was pink, her least favorite color, and a Pterodactyl adorned her medallion. Trudy was yellow, and her coin was designed with a Saber-Toothed Tiger roaring from the front. Kendall's coin gave off green static when he touched it, and he stated the words in his mind were Green Dragon. Once Kendall said the words, his outfit formed over his clothes. The outfit itself was very similar to Timothy's transformation, with dark green replacing the black and the visor on the helmet was a complete half-circle with a row of golden fang-like teeth surrounding the shaded visor instead of the tusks and snout. The four who hadn't seen the transformation sequence withdrew as far as they could from the green electricity. Kendall froze in wonder, observing his new clothing with only curiosity.

"Wait, who's Mastodon?" Chris asked as he placed his coin on the arm of the chair, rubbing his eyes from exhaustion. Timothy stepped forward, clearing his throat. Janice spoke up.

"My assistant has that coin. It would have taken us decades to find you five if an accident hadn't informed us of which coin was his," the scientist stated, and Timothy dug through his pants pocket, producing the coin that started it all. After telling Kendall how to remove the uniform and the history behind the coins, including the accident at the lab that charged them, Janice stepped aside, allowing the older agent to speak.

"As of now, you are all involved in this project. I am sorry to say that communication with your family members and friends is disallowed. Any contact with them would likely confuse them, as they are being informed of your unfortunate deaths caused by various accidents in your home cities as we speak," the government agent said before taking his leave. The seating area on the plane exploded with loud disbelief and anger. It took hours of flight before everyone calmed down enough to listen to the captain make the announcement that the plane would be landing. Sitting down across the aisle from the doctor, Timothy quietly questioned her as he buckled in.

"Did you know about this?"

"No. I didn't know they were going to quote-unquote kill them and you. I knew I was dead. My sister was informed of my unfortunate death in a car crash on highway 95 in DC years ago," Janice stated, ruffled from the revelation that the government had killed all of these people so they could become nameless soldiers. When the plane landed at the abandoned airstrip, the people exited the plane as if they were in mourning. They followed instructions to find their temporary quarters, but the six slept lightly. The only exceptions were Chris and Trudy, who slept none. Not only was the place unfamiliar to them, they were trapped there and had nowhere else to go.

The morning didn't bring any relief to the situation. The six were awakened by shrill alarms already set for eight. Putting on the clothes from the night before, all six followed an agent stationed outside their door to a central room on the sixth level. The central room was sparse, the only furniture was a circular metal table with seven seats in the middle of a blank white room. Breakfast was waiting for them in divided metal trays, although the powdered eggs, burnt bacon and toast was barely picked at by most of them. The only one that ate, slowly, was Doctor Thompson, who joined them shortly after the six were led to the room. Breakfast done, two agents entered the room, taking the metal trays and handing Doctor Thompson a stack of jumpsuits and a small cardboard box. The jumpsuits were primarily black leather, with a flap akin to a motorcycle jacket trimmed in appropriate colors on the torso portion that covered most of the front zipper. In the cardboard box, Janice handed out curved, steel-colored bands that had an indentation big enough for the coins to fit in. All this was done to silence. Katherine was the first to speak after receiving her band.

"I'm military, so I get the need for a uniform, we're supposed to be one team. I don't understand the jewelry."

"The metal bands are bracelets that are slightly magnetized and along with the tabs built into the indentations, it keeps the coins readily available for use," Janice stated, demonstrating the way the coins were supposed to be placed in the groove. Janice proceeded to show them around the rooms of the sixth level. The room they would be eating their meals in was the common room, with four doors leading out of the room. The first two were living quarters, with separate rooms for the men and women. The living quarters were as sparse as the common room, with little in them other than the necessities, such as bedding, lockers for clothing storage, and a bathroom/showering area. The third door was a training room, with various gym equipment such as weights and treadmills along the walls and a large empty space in the middle. The last door was a ready room of sorts, with a glass table containing a digital map of the globe that could be zoomed in and out, and a large projector screen on the wall. All of the rooms, with the exception of the living quarters, had observation windows in them so the administration could check on their progress from time to time.

Even though they had no names, the six still had to get identification cards, allowing them access to what the administration referred to as 'pertinent areas of the facility'. Chris surmised it was just an excuse for the administration to track their movements through the facility. While the cards were being printed, a loud beeping penetrated the entire floor. Red lights flashed from the emergency lighting. The door to the ID room had a small window that Timothy found quite useful, observing men and women in riot gear swarming towards the main elevator.

"Intruder alert! Level 6 incursion in progress. All security teams to their stations. I repeat. Intruder alert! Level 6 incursion in progress. All security teams to their stations," a loud female voice proclaimed from speakers on the other side of the door. Timothy tried the door, but it was locked, and the assistant assumed it was on automatic lock-down from the alert in progress.

"Guys, we have to help," Timothy stated loudly over the beeping. Tim's statement was met by very little enthusiasm from the rest of the team, with the exception of William, who was overjoyed at the prospect of being a hero. The rest of the team remained where they were, with Chris adding a comment that was mostly deafened by the alarm, but Tim thought he heard something about the people here dying and rotting in some unsavory locale. Tim thought for a minute, then spoke to the military woman, "Katherine, when you joined the military, you swore an oath to protect this country from any threat, both foreign and domestic. Well, could you imagine what a person could do with any of the projects down here?"

Katherine mumbled something unheard and nodded in reply. With that, Timothy turned to the other girl in the room.

"Trudy, you were going to be a drug counselor. You were going to save lives. How about you start here and now?" Timothy pleaded. After some consideration, Trudy nodded as well. Turning to Kendall, Timothy stated, "I saw you examining the suit when you transformed on the plane. It was exciting. Aren't you even the least bit curious about what the suit can actually do?"

Agreement was shared by four of the five, and the last was a tough one. Chris was angry about their situation. Timothy stood in front of his last comrade, looking him in the eyes, "I know that you can't stand the people that run this place, but trust me when I say, Janice Thompson is not like them. She will look out for us. She was the one that had the observation windows removed from the living quarters so we could have some semblance of privacy. If nothing else, we need to make sure she is okay. She is out there right now, about to get jumped by whatever is coming down that elevator. Please, from one dead man to another, let's go help her."

Chris was quiet for a long time, contemplating what Timothy had said. His next question was the logical one, "Say I do agree. How are we going to get out there? The door's locked from the outside."

"I have an idea about that. Mastodon," Timothy stated, with the black electricity spreading over his body. Three bangs were heard in the empty hallway, then a loud crash as the metal frame of the door gave way. As the dust cleared, Timothy stood in his transformed state, looking up and down the hall to make sure he didn't hurt anyone. Turning back to his teammates, he stated, "Let's go be heroes."

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber-Toothed Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus Rex!"

"Green Dragon!"

A rainbow of colors swept down the hall as Timothy led the group to the main elevator. They only stopped because of the three rows of fully geared soldiers had trained fully automatic weapons on the elevator. Janice turned a corner and moved behind Timothy, giving him a look of utter disbelief.

"What are you six doing here? You're not some big heroes," she whispered frantically. Timothy turned and walked her away from the group.

"Look, I know that. We're not trying to be the heroes, we're the backup," he told her frustratingly. "You need to get out of here before these soldiers start firing those weapons."

Janice was about to agree with Timothy when a loud squealing noise that rattled around in her head brought her to her knees. Tim made sure she landed softly, but all the doctor could do was groan and hold her ears closed like she was trying to shut off the sound. In this part of the hallway, the alarm was very quiet, so Timothy had no idea was was causing Janice so much pain. As the black-clad man looked back at the elevator, he saw the lights mark the floor the elevator was passing. 4...5...6. A quiet ding was heard as the elevator stopped, just before the order to fire was given. Round after round of nine millimeter ammunition was fired through the elevator doors, punching holes through the metal like so much Swiss cheese. In the span of seconds, the rifles that the soldiers carried had been emptied, so a call for a reload was made. In the three seconds it took to reload, a figure stepped through the still shut elevator doors, and to Janice, the figure was horrifying in it's familiarity. It was the same man that had haunted her nightmares, Doctor Joseph Miller.

"Honey, I'm home," Doctor Miller growled out before quickly extending his hand. In that one motion, a ripple of air passed every soldier in the hallway, shoving the butts of their rifles through whatever part of their body they had them braced on, cutting most of the soldiers nearly in half. Death screams filled the hallway as blood sprayed everywhere, covering the white walls with a coat of red. The only ones able to withstand the wave were the six, and Doctor Thompson, whom Timothy was shielding. As an intimidation tactic, it almost worked, with Trudy, Timothy, Christopher and Katherine being unable to move and Kendall dry-heaving in the corner. William was not going to be deterred, he was going to prove he was meant to be a hero. With an unintelligible war-cry, the blue hero rushed forward, fists drawn back, ready to strike. Doctor Miller, unfazed by the slaughter he just caused, simply reached out and grabbed the rushing man by his throat and lifted him into the air. The unmistakeable sound of choking emerged from the throat of the hanging man.

"I thought the blue one was supposed to be smart. Obviously, that boat missed you," Doctor Miller stated, tightening his grip. William spat out angry gurgles, and Joseph clicked his tongue. Punctuating his next sentence with punches to William's torso, Joseph stated, "You're supposed to be a child's hero. You...really...shouldn't...say...such things!"

On the last exclamation and punch, Doctor Miller released his grip on William, sending him flying through the gypsum wall, into the adjacent laboratory. When the dust settled, the Doctor had moved past the bodies of the soldiers, into the open area of the hallway that the five transformed people stood. The doctor raised one arm, palm up, and quickly curled his fingers, taunting the others. The shock of the initial encounter had worn off, and anger pooled in Chris's heart. This man had hurt one of the only people he could call a friend. Chris looked at Timothy, who nodded, and then to each of the others in turn. Kendall stood tall, fighting back the urge to throw up more air out of his system. All five rushed Miller, and grabbed him at different points on his white lab coat.

"Now this is where it gets fun," Joseph stated, an evil grin spreading across his face. Bringing one foot up and stomping, another ripple of telekinetic power spread through the five, pushing them away from their enemy. Chris and Katherine were the first to recover, with Chris delivering a haymaker style punch, followed by a roundhouse kick from Katherine. Doctor Miller dodged the punch and grabbed Katherine's leg in mid-air. With some effort, he brought the pink heroine over his body, slamming her into Chris. Releasing the woman's leg, he turned to Kendall and Trudy. The yellow and green ones had jumped, Kendall feet first and Trudy fists first, both aiming for Doctor Miller. A blurry foot was all Kendall saw before his chest hit the ground after flipping head over heel. Trudy, on the other hand was grabbed by the wrists and redirected into the nearest wall. Timothy was right behind them, and as the Doctor recovered from his redirection of the yellow missile, he raised a hand. Timothy was stuck in the air.

"Tsk, tsk," Doctor Miller stated, almost sadly. Sighing, he continued, "Little Black Ranger, did you really think you were going to lead this group of unprepared, unskilled, hero-wannabe's to a win on your first time out? I'm disappointed in you. Frankly, I'm disappointed in all of you. I thought you were heroes. I thought that Janice would have warned you about me. That's what I get for thinking."

With a wave of his hand, Timothy was flung into the broken elevator doors and slid down in a heap. Doctor Miller calmly walked over to the very frightened Doctor Thompson, kneeling down to be eye level. Using a finger to brush a stray bunch of hair out of her face, Doctor Miller sighed again as Janice jerked away from his touch like his hands were made from ice. In response, Joseph grabbed her chin and brought it forcefully so her eyes met his gaze.

"Janice, bring me the coins and no one else has to suffer. The deaths of these soldiers are on your head. Their blood is on your hands. All I ask is that you spare them and yourself more pain and bring me the coins," with his last words, Janice spit in Doctor Miller's face. Wiping his face with his other hand, he released her chin. "Fine, if that's the way you want it to be. I will be back, and I will take the coins by force next time. You'll be gluing your precious team back together the next time I see them."

Those words said, Doctor Miller faded from view, vanishing like a ghost. A medical team was dispatched to the location of the battle. By the time they had arrived, Janice managed to scoop herself off of the floor into a standing position. Five of the six were still conscious, and with a little help, were able to take the helmets off, allowing the para-medics to assess injuries of the still living. Other than light concussions and heavy bruising, there were no serious injuries. No broken bones or internal bleeding. The last of the six, William, refused to respond to any stimuli. Janice feared he was dead, but the suit was still active, indicating some sort of life was still in him. The suit was interfering with the instruments that were meant to monitor his condition, so one of the para-medics threatened to cut the suit off with his knife.

"No! You do that, and you could injure him more or injure yourself! We have no idea how these suits handle physical damage. He has to be trying to remove the helmet before the suit will come off," she explained to the medic trying to do what he thought was necessary. The best that they could do was try to work around the suit, monitoring for any sharp change in vital signs. The other five were held in observation for a day before being released. William stayed though, his condition was stable as far as anyone else knew.


	4. Chapter 4: Eye of The Tiger

Each of the remaining five had set up an impromptu watch on William. Sometimes they talked to him, sometimes they sat in complete silence. There was no formal change of guard, it was just a way to keep an eye on their teammate. A few times when she was passing by, Janice saw two of the team in the room at once, bonding over their shared grief. She still had work to do, researching the coins, making presentations to the administration, and thinking of a way to get the team out of the underground lab. They weren't safe here, Doctor Miller had shown her that. Christopher was sitting with William when he caught her attention, stopping her walk towards another presentation she was about to give. Chris opened the door, rubbing his eyes, physically exhausted and drained mentally.

"Christopher, how's he doing?" Janice asked, giving him a hug. The man released her and walked to the observation window for the room. Crossing his arms, he watched William and the monitors closely.

"He's doing the same as he has been for the past three days. Since when did the Power Rangers, a.k.a. us, suck at this hero stuff?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, the coins only increase your physical abilities, not give you new ones. William was a writer before, not a fighter. He may be able to punch through a brick wall when he's transformed, but he still doesn't know how to land a punch on a target that can hit back. In fact, the only two of the team that have any fighting experience at all are you and Katherine."

"Kathy's is probably a lot more...formal then mine," Chris stated, smiling a little. Janice was about to end the conversation when she saw William's hand move. Pointing it out to Chris, he stated that the entire team thought they had seen him move while they held vigil, but it turned out to be their imaginations. Janice was about to agree when she saw William's elbow bend, bringing his forearm to his chest. Yelling at Chris to get the team, she ran into the room, hitting the button for the attending physician. William shifted some more, bringing his other arm up towards his helmet.

"William? Can you hear me? You've got to try to push the helmet off first. No one else can touch it until you give it a push on your own," Janice loudly stated, putting a hand on William's shoulder. Slowly but surely, William's hands worked their way up, grasping the sides of the helm. The doctor responsible for monitoring his condition walked in, and with a little gentle help, the blue suit shrunk back into the golden medallion. The physician quickly checked William's vitals, and though he was groggy, he seemed to be coming out of the coma, with bruising similar to the five that stayed conscious. Checking for any other injuries, the physician stated that William should make a full recovery, prompting some cheering from outside of the room. Looking up, Janice noticed five smiling faces looking through the observation glass. The physician excused himself, allowing the team to join Janice in the room with William. Six people crowded around the hospital bed, watching their teammate wake up.

"Doc? Guys? What in the- oh, that hurt," William said, grunting as he tried to sit up. Janice pressed the button for the front half of the bed to raise, allowing William to sit up without actually straining himself. Looking at the smiling faces, William said, "So, I take it I pulled a '28 Days Later' on you guys, minus the crazy undead things."

All present chuckled at Wiliam's comment. One by one, the team welcomed William back to the land of the living and left the hospital room, until only Janice remained. She patted the man on his shoulder and was about to leave as well when William stopped her.

"Wait, doc, when I was asleep, I heard a voice. It sounded just like the guy that attacked us. He said that the only reason he spared us was because he knew you cared about us. He said he wanted the coins to make himself complete, if that makes any sense. Who was that guy? How does he know about the coins?"

"That man, no that monster, that attacked us used to be Doctor Joseph Miller," Janice told William, who's eyes widened with fear. "I don't know how he survived the explosion at the other lab. I assume it has something to do with the coins and the charging process. He is the only person that knows more about the coins than me. He spent most of his life researching the legends and the facts. He wanted to find the coins, and once he did, he couldn't let go."

"One more question, doc, then I'm gonna try to sleep off the mother of all hangovers. Do you think I, well we, can pull off this superhero team thing? Our first outing was...lacking to say the least."

"I think you need to rest. When you get better, then we'll talk about the superhero business," Janice stated through a warm smile, taking a thin blanket from the bottom of William's bed and covering him up with it. _I hope you guys can pull it off, because otherwise, the world is going to burn,_ Janice thought as she pulled the shade on the large window and flipped the lights off. Two days later, all six were back in the common area, eating lunch. They were laughing and joking around about the fight, each poking fun at what they had seen the others do. Janice joined them, filled with hope that the team was finally coming together. She had convinced the administration to allow them one set of civilian clothes, something they could relax in. Katherine and the boys had all requested simple outfits, jeans and a tee, colored appropriately at Timothy's behest. Trudy was the only one that broke convention, wearing a denim skirt and a yellow tank top. It was as if the six had met randomly, and seeing a connection with one another, decided they should be a group. As the conversation between the team wound down, Janice spoke up.

"All of you have great individual strengths, and the coins multiply those strengths. To truly be the heroes that you need to be, you have to train. First thing that needs to happen is getting everyone to their peak physically. I've convinced the administration to allow you guys to handle that part on your own. Katherine, I believe you would be the best to do that, because of your military experience."

"It's been a while since officer candidate school, but I think I can handle that," Katherine responded, drinking the last of her water. Katherine turned to the team, "I'm only going to do this if you guys agree to it. It's going to be tough, but within six weeks if we all put in the time and effort, I think we can all get there, even Andrews." The table laughed, and Timothy playfully pushed William with his arm. Taking that as an agreement, Katherine stated, "Alright, meet me in the training room in twenty."

Thus began six weeks of blood, sweat, and tears. Their routines included push-ups, sit-ups, weight lifting, climbing, and enough running to make an Olympic team look like a middle school track squad. Timothy may have been the leader of the pack, but when Katherine was yelling at them while doing push-ups, she was the alpha. There were days the team hated her, but they always respected her because she led every exercise by example, taking every step with her team. She refused to quit on them, and they refused to quit on her. Of course, the administration monitored their progress, but with the considerable improvement each week, Janice was able slowly loosened the administration's grip on the team's lives. More and more amenities began showing up in the common rooms and in the living quarters of the team, until it became more like a home instead of a prison. They still couldn't leave the facility, but they were allowed more access to it, leading to personal projects, like Chris coming up with a home-brew beer because of his work in the chemistry department. After earning one full day of rest, combat training began. Since Chris and Katherine were the most experienced with any sort of fighting, they volunteered to fight each other in a ring at the behest of the combat trainer. As Chris put on the slightly padded MMA style gloves, he looked to his opponent and teammate.

"Momma always told me I shouldn't hit a woman, but in this case, I'll make an exception," Christopher said, smirking as he put in his mouthpiece.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing," Katherine stated, grinning right back. A tight breath was drawn by the onlookers because of the banter. This fight was going to be fun to watch. A bell was rung, and Chris rushed forward with a right hook. He punched nothing but air, and received a knee in the gut in response. Stumbling backwards, Katherine asked him, "Had enough?"

After taking a breath and smiling again, Chris changed up his tactics. Instead of rushing, he waited for Katherine to come to him, and as her leg swung downward, he bent to the side, letting her foot slide off his arm, a quick jab popping Katherine in the cheek.

"Nice move, where'd you learn that?" Katherine asked through her mouth guard, backing up a step.

"Bar fight in 95," Chris retorted. Chris waited for Katherine to make the next move, one he didn't see coming. Katherine ducked under a left hook, delivering a perfect uppercut to Chris' chin that sent him reeling. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Base title fight in 96," she replied. Slowly but surely, the observation windows of the training room were filling with soldiers and scientists, keenly watching the two rangers fight. Even some of the administration managed to pull up seats in the front row. Trudy saw a bit of cash being passed around between the soldiers, giving her an idea.

"I bet your next pudding cup that she beats him," Trudy said to Kendall. Pudding was a rare commodity, given with the occasional dinner. Weighing his options a moment, Kendall shook Trudy's hand.

"Deal," he said, a glint of confidence in his eye when Chris landed a knee in Katherine's chest. The two had become more than friendly opponents. They were now gladiators, with an audience as enthusiastic as any who entered the Colosseum in Rome. Every missed blow, every connected strike, sent the crowd both in the room and watching from above into a frenzy. The fighters were dancing to a primordial beat, one that had played since the beginning of man, the beat of war. The war drums pounded to the rhythm of their hearts, and they danced like there was no tomorrow. The final blow, delivered well after their fight was supposed to be called, was when Katherine wrapped her legs around Chris' arm and flung him to the mat. She held his wrist, tightening her legs and pulling with her arms, until Chris tapped the mat three times in succession. As with any fight watched with that intensity, the crowd cheered with respect for both fighters, with some soldiers handing cash to others, and the administration members shaking hands. The man that was supposed to train them in combat called the fight, and lifted Katherine's hand for all to see. Helping her teammate up, Katherine and Chris walked out of the ring as equals.

"Told ya so," Trudy said as she slapped Kendall on the back. Both combatants were beaten and bloody, with a small cut above Chris' eye, and a break in Katherine's lip. After they both were treated by a physician, they joined their four other teammates, a stronger bond between the two. Learning close quarters combat maneuvers was less exciting then what had just transpired, but it was still necessary. The team practiced each move given to them with new resolve, and over the next three weeks, smaller, less exciting sparring matches between each of the team members and the trainer were set up to test their progression. Towards the end of the two weeks, a couple hours after a particularly rough training session, Kendall and William entered the common room, excitement spread on their faces like they had just found the key to happiness.

"Guys! We just figured out something! You gotta see this," William told the four compatriots seated at the table. Following their teammates back to the training room, Kendall picked up a kendo stick that he had requisitioned a week ago, and had waited impatiently for it's arrival, bugging Doctor Thompson about it everyday. Tossing it to William, he stopped at the head of the group, allowing William to walk a few feet away. Janice joined the group a moment later, a look of confusion on her face. She had no idea why they had picked up to go back to the training room after their difficult day.

"Let me tell you why I wanted that kendo stick so badly. I asked for that stick to test a theory. When we transform, our clothing disappears beneath our suits right? That got me to thinking. In all of the legends that involve the coins, the warriors carry weapons. Hercules had his club, Arthur had Excalibur, etcetera. If we were to carry weapons, would they disappear like our clothing?" Kendall nodded at William, who held the stick at his hip.

"Triceratops," William called out, drawing the stick as he spoke. The dark blue static proceeded in it's normal fashion around William, starting at the bracelet. After it was done though, a solid blue sheen, matching the color of William's helmet had covered the the stick, completely sealing the cracks in the weapon. The weapon itself was still rounded, and the tip was still flat, but it looked like the suit had turned the stick into metal. A quick tap on the nearest weight lifting station confirmed that fact to all present. Resting on the stick like a cane, William reached up with one hand and pulled his helm off from the chin. When the transformation was undone, the metal weapon turned back into a relatively light stick made from split bamboo. Tossing the weapon back to Kendall, both of them turned to their companions, smiling.

"The Rangers just got a weapon upgrade," Kendall stated to Doctor Thompson at the back of the room. Within a week, there were two wooden weapon racks along the walls, with several varieties of weapons, in all sizes, from all around the world. The administration had already tested the possibility of using guns as weapons. They were disappointed to find that the suits caused the guns to disappear just like clothing. When it came time to choose a weapon, Chris chose a large European style sword. Kendall selected a set of twin daggers, holding one in a normal grip, and one in an underhanded grip. Timothy decided on a broad, two-headed ax. William chose a spear. Trudy, after asking Kendall what they were, selected a pair of sai for their disarming capabilities. Katherine chose a pair of tonfa, the only non-lethal weapon in the group.

The best melee weapons specialists from all over the world were chosen to train the group on the proper and safe use of the weapons they chose. Sparring matches ensured the trainees were progressing as an acceptable rate, and the close quarters combat trainer still sparred with each ranger once a week to make sure they retained the previous knowledge. During the training time, Janice planned to get the Rangers out of the facility. Her plans were impeded when the administration decided to send the Rangers on a live mission. They were told that the mission had the utmost bearing on national security, and they were to capture a man known as "The Dredge". In the ready room, they were given the layout of the compound that the man called home and were told that their objective would be to sneak in and capture "The Dredge" while the soldiers acted as a distraction for the guards.

"I'm not so sure about this Janice. We still don't know what the suits can handle when it comes to firearms," Timothy said as they were climbing into the plane. Janice nodded in agreement, but there were a dozen specialized soldiers coming with them. Hopefully, the mission would go according to plan. If it didn't, she hoped the coins would protect the team until she could figure out a way to get them out of the government's hands.


	5. Chapter 5: Who'll Stop The Rain

Three hours after takeoff, and Janice was no closer to figuring out how to get the rangers out of the mess they were in. There were a dozen armed, well trained, special forces operatives in the plane with them, so there was no chance of hijacking the flight without risking their lives. There was still so much that Janice didn't know about the coins and the suits. She wished she was better prepared and could offer more advice than just telling the rangers to stay low and avoid gunfire at all costs. The plane landed at a desert base, and the team was informed of the rest of the plan at a quick briefing. They were to be driven to within a mile of the target's compound, where they would disembark and walk the rest of the way. According to satellite imagery, the Dredge kept one tank as heavy artillery, with the rest of his vehicles being heavy trucks to move supplies and men. The base itself had six anti-aircraft guns set up around the perimeter. An airstrike would be called to attend to the tank, and hopefully one or two of the anti-aircraft stations. Eleven of the twelve special forces soldiers would destroy the remaining anti-aircraft guns with a frontal assault while the support aircraft remained relatively close. The last would be a guide into the building that The Dredge would be hiding in, after the team stealthily entered the lightly guarded west end of the compound.

Not a word was said by anyone as the transports carried them to the drop-off location. Janice convinced the commander responsible for the operation to allow her to at least accompany the rangers to the mile drop point. He wasn't greatly enthused about the idea, but he respected her need to be with her team as long as she could. In the transport truck, she made sure to make eye contact with each ranger, assuring them that they would survive the mission. When they were told that they had half a mile to go, the soldiers began cocking their weapons and checking magazines. Janice smirked, and asked the dozen soldiers with them if they had seen the Rangers transform yet. Most of them shook their heads, and one stated he had seen a recording, but none of them had seen it. Nodding at Timothy, he motioned for all six Rangers to stand. The truck rocked a little, but they managed all managed to find stable footing. The voices that spoke next were clear, but somber in tone.

When the six were done calling on the coins, and the rainbow of light faded, the Rangers turned to the soldiers and saluted. The soldiers shook hands with the Rangers when the truck stopped, showing that they respected each other. Janice quietly hugged each of them, and told Timothy to bring them all back. He promised that he would and the eighteen began their trek. At the hundred yard mark, the soldiers hunkered down as they walked, stopping at the top of a dune on the southwest side of the complex. The place was slightly larger than what the Rangers had anticipated, but it wasn't as clean as what they were expecting. The walls of the exterior borders looked like pieces of thick scrap steel that were banded together on metal supports. The stone buildings inside the complex looked almost like ruins of an old settlement. There was one building that looked fortified was on the northwest end, and there were several guards on top. The main entrance was a gate formed of more banded scrap steel, and right behind it sat the tank. The west side was built very closely to a cliff-like rock formation, with one guard pacing back and forth across it. The soldier that would be escorting them scooted closer to Timothy and spoke very quietly.

"When the fireworks start, we are only going to have minutes to get in there and get the target out. Is your team ready to do this?"

"As ready as we are ever going to be," Timothy replied after looking at each of his team in turn. He drew his ax, and the team followed by drawing their weapons from sheaths that were formed by the suits. The soldier crawled back around to the squad of soldiers, one of whom was setting up a sniper rifle. After a brief conversation that Timothy couldn't hear, the soldier motioned for the six to go down the sand dune and head northwest toward the rocks. Trudy leaned against a larger rock when they neared the cliff, her breathing shallow and quick as she dropped her weapons. William caught her before she could fall and motioned for the team to wait.

"Woah, Trudy, hold on. What's going on?" William whispered to his team-mate.

"I dunno if I can do this," Trudy whispered, her voice betraying she was on the verge of tears. After hearing the soldier tell Timothy that he needed to get his team under control, William spoke again.

"It's okay, hey, look at me," William stated, putting his gloved finger under her helmet. Her chin raised, and even though he couldn't see the eyes behind the visor, William knew Trudy was paying attention. "We have been training for moments like this for months now. We can do this, we have to."

"How are you so calm?" Trudy harshly whispered back.

"Remember our fight with Doctor Miller?" William asked in a low tone. Trudy nodded. "I almost died. I know the suit protected me, but I almost died. All I can think about since then is how I'm going to get payback on that monster for what he did to me. When I look in that compound, you know what I see? A bunch of Doctor Millers. They are bad men, hurting people like you and me that don't have the coins and the suits and the fancy powers. I know that capturing this man will prevent someone else from dying. This is part of my payback. Now, take deep breaths. In with the good, out with the bad."

After a few deep breaths and some help standing, Trudy picked up her sai. The soldier tapped his radio twice, and the team crouched down with him. What happened next was more real then the grittiest war movie that any of them had ever seen. Two jets came from the north, dropping a missile each in the compound, destroying the south end completely. The sniper began firing next, taking down the guard on the west wall and the one manning an anti-aircraft gun on the southeast end. That was their signal. They ran the two-hundred yards to the wall, and found a piece of steel loosened by the blast. The six and their guide managed to get in while everyone else in the compound was moving to the burning end, firing into the distance. Timothy assumed that the soldiers were firing back, because occasionally, one of the men defending the place would fall.

The northwest end, barely touched by any gunfire, was still heavily guarded, although those on top of the building were looking to where the other soldiers were. The power generators must have been on the south side, because light was no longer emanating from the building. This made the six's job easier. One guard stood outside the door, and the soldier left the group behind a conveniently placed group of barrels within sight of the door. The fire from the south end was very bright, but the soldier stuck to the shadows that vehicles and crates of supplies were casting. Timothy had lost the soldier, but Kendall found the soldier as he darted between shadows. The Rangers observed closely as the soldier quietly found a way around the sight of the guard. At the last second, the soldier struck, the butt of his sidearm finding it's way into the back of the guard's head. Motioning for the Rangers to follow, the soldier opened the door, bringing his assault rifle to a firing position at his shoulder. Kendall picked up the strap holding what was the guard's shotgun with one hand and threw it over the wall closest to them, which was about a hundred yards away. Only stopping for a moment to consider how impressive a feat that was, Chris was the last through the door, closing it quietly behind him.

What greeted them inside was a rather well-decorated and well-insulated building, with nice furniture and wooden carvings in the entry room. Unfortunately, three guards carrying large caliber pistols walked in the room within seconds of Chris closing the door and regrouping. Gunfire erupted as the group scattered, with the soldier using the nearest piece of furniture as cover, and the six ducking and rolling, trying to stay out of the line of fire. Katherine was the closest, and managed to knock the pistol out of one guard's hand with one tonfa strike, knocking him out with the next. That put her right in the line of sight for the next guard, but before he could fire, one of Kendall's dagger's had found it's way into the guard's gun arm, causing him to misfire into the ceiling before dropping the weapon. The non-lethal end of William's spear knocked that guard down for the count. Chris yelled a warcry before leaping into the last guard, broad side of his sword first. A shot ricocheted off the wide blade before impact, and the force of the attack shoved the last guard back into one of the stone walls before he collapsed in a heap. As the five who attacked recovered themselves and, in Kendall's case, weaponry, Trudy called out.

"Guys! He's hurt!" The remaining five rushed the see their guide holding his leg. Dark fluid was escaping the wound, and Trudy was trying to help him tie a tourniquet with a piece of the curtains hanging in the place. Reaching into his pocket, the guide pulled a photo of a man out of his pocket. Handing the photo to Trudy, the soldier took a quick breath before tightening the strip of cloth with a grunt.

"This is him, you gotta find him. Finish the mission. I'll be okay here. I can watch the front door for you," the soldier said as he picked up his rifle. Breathing deeply and forcefully, the soldier stated, "Go be the heroes you're supposed to be."

Trudy held the picture tight and after promising to be back, led the six up the stairs. It had become eerily quiet outside, there wasn't as much shooting going on in the compound, and the guards up on the roof hadn't fired a shot in a long time. Weapons at the ready, the six moved slowly and carefully, looking in each room to make sure there wasn't going to be anymore surprises. The last room at the end of the upstairs opened as the six approached, with an accented voice telling them to enter the room. The six slowly did as instructed, and Trudy quickly identified the man in the photo as the man sitting behind a solid wooden desk upon the last Rangers entrance. The room they entered was rather large, taking up a full half of the top floor. It looked like an office of sorts, with two filled bookcases on the plainly painted walls. The desk was stacked with papers, and the man sat in a comfortable looking black chair. The man had dark hair, dark green eyes, and was wearing a well-fitted button up shirt and jeans. Not exactly the crazed terrorist they were expecting. The man stood, his hands behind his back, smiling at his guests.

"Ah, I see you know who I am. I also know who you are. Monsieur Miller came to see me earlier today. You are the Power Rangers, no?" the man stated, his speech tinted with french pronunciation. Drawing two thin blades from behind his back, The Dredge continued, "He paid me handsomely to be your test. We should move to a more comfortable arena, no?"

Slamming his blades into the walls of the room, white arcs of electrical energy flowed from The Dredge through his blades. Within seconds, the entire second floor of the stone building was gone. They were standing outside, on the top of the rocky cliff overlooking the west wall. The flattened top was sloped down slightly, giving The Dredge the high ground, but there was room for the six of them to spread out some. Readying their weapons, Timothy stood in front of the pack.

"I assume he paid you with more than money then?" Timothy questioned.

"Monsieur Miller paid me with something far more valuable, power," The Dredge responded. Waving his swords to his side, two copies appeared. Now three men, all wielding rapier-like blades stood ready. The middle one yelled out, "En Guarde!"

All three copies of The Dredge rushed forward, and the Rangers paired off with each copy. Trudy and Kendall took the copy to the left. Katherine and Chris took the copy in the middle, and finally William and Timothy took the one on the right. William and Timothy arrived at their copy first, with Timothy bringing his large ax straight down towards his opponent. The copy was too fast for that, dodging right and sliding the rapier up Timothy's helmet with a horrible screeching noise accompanied by bright white sparks. William's spear was knocked out of the way as the blue ranger jumped over his leader. The ranger's momentum brought his ribs in contact with the pommel of his copy's blade, knocking him sideways and pushing the air from his lungs. Timothy looked towards where his partner landed and brought his weapon back up, charging the copy. While the leader and William were dealing with their copy, Kendall and Trudy had managed to make it to their copy.

Kendall was the first to attack, slashing with his underhanded dagger first, which was blocked. Trudy had circled behind the copy and stabbed at it with her sai. Unfortunately for her, the copy was ready and knocked the sai away, slashing at her arm. Yellow light erupted from the suit as Trudy felt steel bite her forearm. The light faded quickly as the suit resealed itself. The yellow ranger instinctively grabbed the wound, and her hand came back dry, although her arm still hurt. Kendall was quicker with his next pair of strikes, slashing and then using his momentum to spin and stab. The first attack slid along the long blade of hit enemy, and the second was blocked by the rapiers crossing, shoving the overhanded dagger down. A quick headbutt to his helmet shoved Kendall backwards, although he didn't really feel the blow, just the pressure from it. Chris and Katherine were the last, by a mere fraction of a second, to make it within striking distance of their copy.

Katherine began with a flurry of spinning tonfa, each of which was blocked by the blades of the copy, although The Dredge did look concerned as the last one hit. Katherine threw her leg out when both blades where occupied, landing the first successful blow on a copy. The copy stumbled backwards, and Chris charged, blade first. Barely able to bring the thing blades up in time, the copy blocked the horizontal swing, but slid back even closer to the edge of the stone cliff. Behind his visor, Chris smiled. The red ranger charged again, bringing his sword over his head. The copy ducked a little, thrusting his rapier into Chris' chest when he was close enough. With a golden glow, the Tyrannosaurus on Chris' chest solidified into a single plate of armor, and the rapier snapped in half. The copy, shocked from this turn of events, didn't have time to move as the sword slashed across his chest, leaving a deep and bloody gash. Katherine took the opportunity to attack the stunned copy, leaping off the back of her kneeling partner, landing a flying kick to the wounded portion of the copy's chest. The impact was sufficient to knock the copy off the edge of the cliff, sending him screaming to the ground below. The copy didn't make it all the way to the ground, as he folded like a cheap wallet over the fence.

With their copy dead, Katherine and Chris took just a moment to rest, and then quickly nodded at each other before splitting up to help their teammates, Katherine helping William up as she ran towards Timothy, and Chris patting Trudy on the back before joining Kendall. The flurry of blows from three rangers was too much for the remaining copies. Timothy scored the killing blow on his copy by putting his ax in it's ribs. Trudy and Kendall simultaneously pierced the heart of their copy, leaving them covered in blood.

"This was not what I was promised," the last copy stated as it fell backwards, landing flat on the stone. The rangers rested for a minute, absorbing the fact that they had just killed a man. Katherine easily accepted the fact, as The Dredge wasn't the first man she killed in the line of duty. Christopher rationalized it with a "him or us" mentality. Timothy had to take several deep breaths before he could yank the ax out of his copy with a sickening crunch. William, still trying to recover his breath from the blow to his ribs, pushed the thoughts out of his mind, solely focused on his breathing. Kendall's brain took a path of shutting down, causing his legs to fall out from under him, curling him up in the fetal position. Trudy was the most vocal, trying to talk herself quietly into maintaining her calm, a losing battle evidenced by the sound of her voice getting louder. It took several minutes for everyone to calm enough to reassess their situation. They were on a stone cliff, a few hundred feet off the ground. Luckily, it sloped downwards until it was only about 50 feet off the ground at the end farthest from the camp. Unfortunately, no one had a rope. A beep caught the Ranger's attention and Timothy saw a button being pressed on a remote by the copy he thought he killed.

"Guys? Time to go!" he yelled and ran towards the short end of the cliff, stopping just briefly to grab Kendall by the wrist and help him to a standing position. Chris helped William up, and ran with him, following Timothy. Katherine picked Trudy up off the ground and shook her to snap her attention back to reality, forcing her to run. All six leapt off the cliff, screaming loudly. Suprisingly, they hit the ground alive as the top of the cliff exploded, blowing rubble hundreds of feet in the air. The rangers ran for their lives, trying to get out from under the rain of stone. Standing a few hundred yards away, the rangers watched as a white electrical discharge from the body bent over the fence careened towards them. Each ranger hunkered down, waiting for an impact that never came. When they stood, each watched their suits expand into a shiny, sleek armor before shrinking back to the normal cloth-like material.

"What in the name of everything holy was that?" Kendall asked Timothy.

"I have no idea, but I think we just got another upgrade," Timothy responded. As soon as Timothy finished, the rangers saw their guide being carried by two more soldiers. A third followed, carrying a cardboard box. The guide was still alive, the wound on his leg covered by what seemed to be more pieces of the curtain.

"The Dredge?" their guide asked. The rangers shook their heads. The guide smiled, "Ah well, we got all of his files in his office. A warlord dead, and his camp ruined. I call that a win."

The Rangers agreed as they took over the job of carrying their guide the mile back to the rendezvous, where Janice waited for them, simply ecstatic to see them alive.


	6. Chapter 6: Oil That Tastes Like Blood

Kendall woke up in a cold sweat, smelling blood and burnt flesh. This was the third night he had tried to sleep, but to no avail. He knew The Dredge was a bad guy and that they were the good guys, but he couldn't get over the fact that he had assisted in the premature death of a person. He exited the sleeping quarters and found Trudy in the common room, staring at a turned-off TV screen. As the green ranger stepped closer, Trudy seemed to acknowledge his presence by curling her legs up into the fetal position on the couch silently. Kendall, sitting on the other end of the couch, assumed the same position. The silence in the room was astounding, with the exception of the occasional snore from William that managed to escape the living quarters. After a few moments, Trudy snickered.

"I don't know how you guys put up with that," she said quietly. Kendall chuckled in reply.

"There are some nights that I don't know how we put up with it either. In fact, right now, I don't know how he can sleep."

"I know what you mean. I haven't slept since we got back. Kathy tells me that I should just accept the fact that if we hadn't stopped him, then he would have killed us," Trudy stated, a tear forming at the corner of her eye, "I just can't get that to make sense, you know? I was trying to make myself into someone who could save lives, and here I am taking lives instead."

"Chris has said the same sort of thing to me, not in so many words though," as he spoke, Kendall slid closer, putting a hand on Trudy's knee, which seemed to shatter the relative control that she was maintaining. Tears started pouring down her face as she sobbed into Kendall's shirt. He wanted to stop the tears, but he couldn't. In fact, his own tear ducts betrayed him as he began crying too, leaning into the girl as much as she was leaning into him. Even when the tears stopped coming, they held onto each other. It was like they needed to know that someone was there, fighting the same battle that they were fighting.

Morning came, and Kendall and Trudy had fallen asleep on the couch, curled up into each other. There were no jokes made, no hints that anything had happened, just acceptance that they were there for each other. William slept in, skipping breakfast for the third day in a row. Timothy quickly left after eating, going to assist Dr. Thompson in her lab. When William finally entered the common room, Katherine suggested they get a workout in. The idea garnered very little enthusiasm, but the five did as suggested. It was a low energy, slow-paced ordeal, completed as a necessity more than a desire. It seemed like the Rangers had lost their ability to focus, and William and Chris got into a shouting match over how much weight William should be able to handle on the bench press, and when Katherine took Chris' side in the argument, that almost started a fist-fight.

All arguments stopped when a very angry looking Janice entered the room, followed closely by an apologetic looking Timothy. Janice quickly looked to the upstairs viewing area of the workout room and noticed it was empty. The cameras were still on though, and even though they only recorded visuals, so she had to make this look good.

"Alright! I'm going to yell at you! You're going to pretend that I am getting onto your case about something! Are we clear?!" Janice's voice echoed around the relatively empty room. Nods of confusion spread through the group. "Good! Now, I've got some results back from the recent tests that Timothy here..." Janice jerked her thumb towards the leader of the troop, "and I ran! You know what I found?! Do you?!" Quick shakes of heads, along with slightly dropped faces confirmed that those present were playing along with her act.

"I found out that if I tune a large enough electrical field to the exact frequency your coins give off, the coins will teleport to that location! Do you understand what that means?! Well?!" Confusion was quickly replaced by excitement as the Rangers slowly figured out what that meant for them. As Janice saw smiles spread across their faces, she quickly stated, "You're supposed to be getting chewed out, remember?! This is not good news! This is supposed to be horrible, distressing news!"

The rangers quickly dropped their faces again, hiding the fact that they were smiling. Even Timothy looked less apologetic than he did a few moments ago, but he did his best to maintain the act. Kendall, putting things together in his brain, commented, "Ummm...Janice, how are you going to keep this a secret from the administration? I thought they monitored everything in your lab, and they wouldn't let you outside the same as us."

"Really?! You didn't think I hadn't thought of that?!" Janice actually was a tiny bit annoyed at Kendall for stating the obvious, taking a step towards the now cowering green ranger, "You should just leave that to me! Be ready to go! When Timothy says to morph, you do so without hesitation! The timing has to be perfect! Dismissed!"

With those final words, Janice left the workout room, and the six were left alone to continue their exercise, with no further disturbances, like the administration had seen them, and the ploy worked. That afternoon, a counselor was called in, speaking with each of the six individually. First was Timothy, the leader of the group. Seated in a chair opposite of the psychologist in the common room, the black ranger adjusted his glasses and waited. The rest of the six were in the living quarters, as this was supposed to be a private session.

"I'm letting you know, this session is being recorded. My name is Doctor Henry Parker, and I'm here to help you through any problems you may be experiencing because of your recent mission." the short, skinny man in a suit stated as he flipped on a tape recorder.

"Took them long enough," Timothy replied, leaning back in the chair. "Seriously? Three days later? What kind of red tape did they have to cut? They make the red tape, you'd think they would be able to cut it the quickest. Three days is a long time when everyone is trying to make sense of what happened."

"Let's not jump to conclusions, this is a simple counseling session. How have you been faring since the mission? I'm just trying to get a sense of where you are at mentally and physically," Dr. Parker asked, leaning forward.

"How have I been faring? Let's see, I don't like sleeping, eating nauseates me, and I have thrown myself into working with Dr. Thompson to figure out what the coins do. So I say overall, pretty horribly," Timothy replied, using his fingers to count the reasons his wellness has declined.

"I see, so would you say that the mission has compromised your ability to lead effectively?"

"Woah, now you're jumping to conclusions. No, if anything, this has made me want to work harder to figure out how to best protect my team. I want to know exactly what the coins do, so I can tell my team what they need to look out for and worry about."

"I understand now. Tell me, what's your relationship like with your teammates?"

"Well, we are next to each other day in and day out. We get on each others nerves, but I know that we are there for each other when we need to be. When you are counted dead by the outside world, and there are only six people in the world that know what that feels like, you immediately have common ground. That common ground works its way into friendship and family quickly."

"I see..." the psychologist stated, writing more notes. The rest of Timothy's interview was similar in answer, with Timothy backing up his team one hundred percent, explaining that even though they had their flaws, they were the best people that he knew. His session over, Timothy told Kendall it was his turn as he walked into the boys living quarters. Sitting in the same chair that Timothy recently vacated, Kendall nervously sat, unsuccessfully trying to get comfortable.

"You can relax. I'm not here to judge you. I'm only here to talk," Dr. Parker said to the nervous ranger, flipping on the tape recorder again.

"No, see that's what they all say, then come the pills, the padded rooms, and the nine o'clock lights out because of the little 'talks'," Kendall stated, finally curling his legs under himself, sitting sideways in the chair.

"Well, I can assure you, that won't happen here. I'm only here to see how your doing following the mission. Would you like to talk about what happened on the mission?"

"Not really, no. I don't really wanna talk about the mission at all."

"Okay, then how about after? I understand you have had trouble sleeping. Do your dreams wake you up?"

"I don't remember my dreams. All I remember is the smells."

"What kinds of smells?"

"Blood and burnt flesh. It's like being in a kitchen that's overcooked hamburgers, right next to a butcher's shop."

"Do you remember smelling those things on the mission?"

"No, I don't. That's all I'm going to say about that," Kendall said flatly, looking at the doctor like he had just asked the most ridiculous question in the world.

"Okay then, let's talk about something else, like your team. How do you feel they are faring in this difficult time?"

"I don't know honestly. Sometimes I feel like this whole thing brought us together some, and then there was stuff like the argument this morning that makes me wonder."

"An argument? What about?"

"Oh, it was something little, William didn't want to lift the amount of weight that Chris thought he should be lifting, and William went off. Then Kathy got in the mix and it nearly got violent."

"Interesting. Well, sometimes people have a tendency not to hold back their true feelings around people they are comfortable with, like close friends and family. Maybe that's a sign that William has accepted his place among the six of you."

"Yeah, maybe but that's still kinda rough," Kendall replied, shrugging, lost in thought. The rest of the session went slowly, with Kendall saying very little, lost in his own mind about what happened last night and this morning. Kendall knocked on the girls door, telling Katherine it was her turn. Katherine stepped out, calmly facing the psychologist. She had been through this before, she had seen her share of combat missions, and to her, this follow-up was no different than any of the others she had received. That was until the doctor asked her about Timothy.

"So, how does it feel to have a civilian in charge? I know you were formerly a major in the Air Force. I'm sure that you feel you should be the leader of the team, considering the combat experience you have," the doctor stated. Katherine leaned back in the chair, carefully considering her answer. She wanted to make sure she was clear about one thing: that Timothy was a good man.

"If you're asking me if I think that Kingston has what it takes to be a leader, my answer is definitively yes. If you're asking me if I think he is the right person to be in charge right now, that one I'm not so sure on. Don't get me wrong, he did the most important thing for any leader in a combat mission, he brought everyone home in one piece physically. He froze during the mission when Tanner needed his help to carry on, and that I don't agree with. I've thought about it though, and that just shows some inexperience. The only way to get that experience is to be put in situations like that. I wasn't exactly the best at it when I was fresh out of OCS, I just had to keep improving, which is what I see him doing."

With that explanation, Katherine's session ended and she knocked on the door to tell Chris to come out for his turn. When Chris sat, the silence was deafening. He stared at the psychologist for fifteen minutes, not saying a word, only giving the occasional shrug. It was like there was this wall between him and the doctor, and no manner of questions would ever pierce that veil. When the psychologist finally stopped asking questions, Chris asked if they were done. The psychologist agreed and Chris told William it was his turn when he went back inside the boys living quarters. William walked to the chair, stretching and yawning, having just been disturbed from a nap. As he sat, the psychologist took note of the sleepy eyes and began questioning.

"From the observations of the administration, you have been sleeping in, missing breakfast for three days in a row. Some people would call that strange, considering the trauma you have gone through."

"Some people would also call watching others go about their daily lives a little strange too. I believe in the outside world that's called stalking. In here, it's just 'observation of assets'. We live in a topsy-turvy world, doc," William said, popping his knuckles loudly.

"Well, the administration just wants to make sure that everyone is at their peak physically and mentally. That's what I'm here for. So that begs the question, why do you think you are sleeping so much?"

"I dunno doc, I just am. Used to be when I would get stuck on the next part of my story, I would take a drink of some very strong adult beverage and lay down for a little power nap, forgetting the world and just letting my mind do it's own thing. Since we don't have the privilege of the strong drinks, minus Fridays when Chris is allowed to bring his home-brew beer in, I guess I've been sleeping more to make up for it."

"I see. How is your relationship with the rest of the team? Do you feel like they accept you?"

"Well, I like to think they do. If they didn't, they would have just left me in the room to rot while I was in that coma for three days. Not saying we don't have our spats, but I think we are pretty much family here."

"When you say 'spats', what do you mean exactly?" the doc stated, stopping his note taking and looking directly at William. William leaned back and thought, trying to think of an example.

"Alright, well here, perfect example of what I mean. This morning, I wasn't really feeling the workout, but I knew it had to get done. I was just going through the motions, when Chris decided it was a good time to try and push me to do more weight than I felt capable of handling on the bench press at the time. That turned into a fuster-cluck real quick when Kathy got involved. If Doc Thompson and Tim hadn't come in when they did, there might have actually been a fight. Chris and I talked it out and we're good now." As William finished his sentence, the psychologist took a few more notes and took the questioning in a different direction, crossing his legs as he asked the next question.

"So, have you noticed tension between Chris and the rest of the team on a regular basis?"

"No, there's just been tension in general here lately because of what happened and each of us are trying to make sense of what happened on the mission. Chris is a pretty amicable guy. He was the one that thought about making alcohol from working in the chemistry department. I'm a writer, and I didn't even think of that," William chuckled. The interview over, William knocked on the girls door and told Trudy it was her turn. The yellow ranger looked very calm when she sat down, crossing her legs, and putting her hands on the arms of the chair.

"Let's get one thing straight. I was on my way to becoming a drug counselor and I know basic psychology, so let's not dance around. I am perfectly capable of answering direct questions about my mental condition." Trudy stated as Doctor Parker began to open his mouth. Taken slightly aback, the doctor cleared his throat and began.

"So Trudy, would you mind telling me about your mental state for the past three days?"

"No, I don't mind. I haven't been sleeping well, and I haven't been eating well. In the past three days, I have had nightmares about the mission, and occasionally when there are loud, sudden noises, I jump and my memories come flooding back. If I remember correctly, that's almost classic PTSD," Trudy stated, leaning forward.

"You seem really sure of that diagnosis. Do you think the rest of the team recognizes that condition in themselves and you?"

"Uh, no. I don't think they recognize it," Trudy said sarcastically, "Are you kidding me? Of course they recognize it. They just have different ways of dealing with it. I can't tell each of them how to deal, they have to figure that out on their own. We can be there for each other, but we can't actually dig into each others minds and fix the wiring."

"About that, do you think the team is there for one another when it is needed the most?" Doctor Parker took some more notes as he asked his question.

"Yes, I believe that we are there for one another. After months of being together, either we are at each others throats for the entire time, which let's face it, gets tiring, or we become a tight-knight group." The interview ended a couple of questions later, with Trudy telling Doctor Parker that the team would be fine, they just needed to work out what happened on their own.


	7. Chapter 7: I Just Wanna Live

Weeks passed, and the Rangers were never called on once. It seemed the administration had forgotten that they were there. Even the guards were more lax about the locations the Rangers could go in the building, allowing them to walk right by, into restricted areas. Their ID cards never let them into any other parts of the buildings, but they were given freedom to wander the halls. The days passed slowly, and Janice never gave Timothy the word to get the Rangers together. Timothy could only watch as frustration build on Janice's face everyday as she stared at her computer, waiting on an email that never came. She had convinced another scientist that she was allowed to email that her electrical field was a new way to get a reaction from subatomic particles. The other scientist never told her when the process of tuning the field would be complete, and when he would run an experiment. He hadn't yet obviously, because the coins were still in the building, attached to the armbands she gave the Rangers.

"How long are we gonna have to wait for this man to get done with his calibrations? I thought he was supposed to be doing to calibrations weeks ago," Timothy asked his mentor, trying to come up with something to talk about. The silence in the lab the past few days had been deafening. Janice sighed before replying.

"I don't know, it's like he dropped off the face of the earth. Just a week ago, he told me the calibrations were almost done, and that he needed to get the go ahead from his superiors before he could do the experiment. I have asked him for an update every single day since then, and I have yet to get a reply." The phone in the room loudly rang, startling the two. Timothy was the first to recover from the shock and picked the phone up. The man on the other end asked for Janice, and Timothy complied with the order. When she picked up, the same voice that spoke to her when she first arrived greeted her.

"Dr. Thompson, we need to test the Rangers abilities to handle other forms of attack other than melee weapons. It has been decided that your team will meet at the shooting range, and we will begin testing from there." The words made Janice's blood boil, they were essentially asking six people that she cared about to stand in front of a firing squad, with no protection. This was not going to stand.

"No! Are you crazy!? We have no idea how the suits will react to gunfire! My team is too precious-" Janice started, a rant forming in her mind before voice interrupted her, and even though the voice was speaking in the same uncaring tone, it was much louder than her screams, like someone had maxed the volume out on the microphone.

"Your team is part of our project, they always have been and always will be. So, either they come voluntarily, or they come by force. We have a dozen well-trained men for each Ranger ready to force them into compliance if they try to resist. So it would behoove you to tell them to go under their own power. They have twenty minutes." After the voice stopped speaking, a loud click told Janice the conversation was done. She stared at Timothy for a few moments before speaking. He had heard her part and what the voice said before hanging up, and he put two and two together before she was done.

"Timothy, I don't know how to even ask you guys to do this," Janice said, tears forming in her eyes. Timothy thought for a moment before replying, putting on a brave face for her.

"You know what Janice? It's okay. I think that the suits can handle it. I saw our suits turn into armor-like plating when the fight with the Dredge was over. With any luck, the suits will have a danger sense that will cover us from the bullets," Timothy replied, hugging his mentor. He chuckled before saying, "The hard part is going to be convincing the others to trust the suits."

Janice wiped her eyes before nodding. Timothy had been out the room for a couple of minutes when the computer beeped, informing Janice that she had a new email. She hurried over to it, and hoped beyond hope it was the scientist she had been emailing. Her heart skipped a beat when she read the email, with the scientist stating that he had completed the calibrations and within the hour he was going to be performing the experiment on a large scale. All she had to do was stall the test for the Rangers for that long. The doctor ran out of the room, catching up with Timothy as he was turning to corner to the hall that the Ranger's rooms were on. Noticing her, Timothy waited for her to catch her breath before taking another step. She informed him of the situation, then walked with him the rest of the way into the Ranger's rooms. Timothy addressed his team, and Janice stood next to the entry door, watching him choose his words carefully.

"The administration has called for us to begin testing the suits against live firearms," the other five Rangers began to interrupt, but Timothy held his hand up, and eventually, everyone quieted. "Normally, I would say that they could stick it and we would fight our way out, but there has been a significant change in the suits, and the circumstances. It would be better if we followed the orders and they allowed us to morph. We won't have to put up with testing for long, if you know what I mean."

The wink Timothy gave with the last sentence turned a light bulb on in everyone's head, and the team became excited, smiling and giving each other knowing looks. That didn't prevent them from taking as much time as possible to go to the designated area, just outside the door of the shooting range. The guard waiting outside was one of the soldiers that had been on them with the mission to hunt down the Dredge, and he apologized that he couldn't do anything to help them out as he opened the door. Inside was a man in a black and white suit, and six more men standing at the ready behind a counter that held a variety of guns, from small caliber pistols to shotguns and fully automatic rifles. The man in the black suit was the only one to speak.

"I'm going to ask you six to put on your suits when you get to the end of the range. We are going to start with non-lethal ammunition, and work our way up to low-velocity lethal rounds at close range. This is the only way we have to test the capabilities of your suits," he said as he pointed to the end of the range, about thirty feet away from the soldiers. "If there is a problem, we will immediately address it, and the test will be stopped. Are there any questions?"

The tone which the agent spoke informed the Rangers that they should have no questions. Shaking their heads, the Rangers stepped down to their spots, designated by different colored pieces of duct tape. William was the most nervous, and he stopped right in front of Timothy, before turning and starting to walk away. Timothy put a hand on the Blue Ranger's chest and looked at him with a stern look, trying to will him to take his position.

"No way man, I thought I could handle this, but I just can't. I don't wanna get shot. I mean it was different against The Dredge, he was gonna kill us if we didn't kill him. This is like sticking your face into a microwave just to see how long it takes to nuke your brain," William stated, panic on his face. Timothy held William in place, not letting the writer get past him.

"Come on man, keep it together for just a little while. If you leave there are going to be at least a dozen men that are going to shoot you anyway, so you can either take it voluntarily now, or take it involuntarily later," Timothy said, looking William directly in the eyes as he said his piece. After a few moments, William nodded.

"At least here they are using lubrication I guess," the Blue Ranger stated as he took a deep breath before stepping on his designated piece of tape, "Triceratops."

When the blue energy started, the other five called out to their coins. The rainbow faded and six shotguns were loaded and pointed at the Rangers. The suits turned into the sleek colored armor, and the Rangers braced themselves. The agent counted down after giving Janice a headset to deafen the noise.

"5-4-3-2-1-Fire!"

The Rangers felt no impact. The only reason they knew that the shotguns had found their target was because of the sound of the beanbags hitting the armor, and a glow from the suits. They had not moved from their various positions, most covering their faces instinctively from the noise of the guns firing. The shotguns were switched out for small caliber pistols that contained rubber bullets. The agent called out to the rangers to make sure everyone was uninjured before the test was continued. Everyone nodded, with Trudy, Kendall, and William taking very deep breaths to work themselves up for the next shot. The agent began counting again, but before reaching the count of three, he stopped.

The Rangers suits began glowing and discharging electrical pulses. Timothy was the first to move, sprinting toward Janice and grabbing her. The Rangers began to fade in and out of view, like they were images in a camera lens focus was repeatedly changing. Once Timothy grabbed Janice, her body matched the fading, until the seven faded completely. Timothy was the last to arrive at their destination, completely disoriented. All he heard was beeping, and he could see lights flashing, but there were no other indicators to their location. His head felt like he was recovering from a spin on a tilt-a-whirl, and his eyes wouldn't focus on what he was seeing.

"Sound off!" Timothy yelled as soon as he could make his mouth work.

"I'm here!" Trudy yelled not so far away on his right.

"Rodriguez!" Katherine's voice came from Timothy's left.

"Johnny 5 is alive!" William exclaimed as Timothy stood, trying to get a grip on his equilibrium.

"Yep!" Chris said in a strained tone.

"For the love of the gods!" Kendall stated before he began dry-heaving. Then there was nothing but silence.

"Janice?" Timothy asked loudly as he looked around. His eyes started to focus, telling the Black Ranger that his team was in a ten-feet wide concrete tube, and in the center was a five-feet wide metal one. Bracing a hand on the stone wall, Timothy concentrated, eventually finding the motionless body of their mentor against the tube. Taking some unsteady steps, Timothy went to his boss and friend, noting that the other Rangers were slowly standing to join him. Timothy felt for a pulse, and the repeated pressure told him that Dr. Thompson was alive, just unconscious. He tried to move her, but her the back of her lab coat prevented him from moving her. Carefully, he took it off of her, and moved her away from the humming centerpiece of the tunnel. William examined the coat, coming to the conclusion that the material had phased into the metal. Noting how the material could have easily been a limb from any of them, William counted his lucky stars that they were transported in one piece.

"Uh guys, we are about to have company," Chris said as the flashing lights and beeping stopped. He could hear yells coming from down the hallway, and they didn't sound friendly. Timothy and Katherine each held an arm as they grabbed Janice and ran. The other four followed quickly. It wasn't long until they found their way to a main observation deck, a metal platform covered in thick glass with stairs leading up to it. The door was locked as confused scientists tried to call for security, setting off more alarms. A swift kick from Chris and Kendall opened the door, and the seven made swift progress out of the lab and up two flights of stairs. At the top, a security guard tried to stop them, but Trudy kicked him out of the way, into the wall, and the guard slumped in a heap. Following the exit signs, the group exited a fire escape and ran into the woods surrounding the laboratory.

A few minutes later, the group stopped and rested. Janice was beginning to stir, so Timothy and Katherine set her down against a tree. Pulling off their helmets, the group smiled at each other as they realized that they had gotten out of the facility. William and Trudy were laughing wildly, and Chris had allowed himself a short chuckle in celebration. Timothy kept watching Janice wake up, gently holding her hand as she opened her eyes. The immediate reaction to her surroundings was shock, and the mentor tried to stand, only to lose her balance. Timothy and Katherine caught her as she fell, gently bringing her down to her previous position.

"Woah, Janice, it's okay. We made it. The experiment worked. We are finally free," Timothy stated, placing a hand on his mentor's shoulder. The five others joined him in smiling at Janice, and she smiled back, resting her head on the tree.

_This was a long time coming, and I'm glad it's finally here._ Janice thought as she relaxed, letting herself recover. Her head was pounding like a jackhammer, and every muscle felt like it was on fire. She closed her eyes, and Timothy checked her pulse again to make sure that she was alive.

"Uh, guys? I hate to break up the good times here, but where are we?" Trudy asked, trying to gather some sort of bearings. The Rangers found themselves in a forest with pine trees mixed in with poplars and other deciduous trees, and there was very little to give them any sense of direction, because the sun had already dipped below the horizon.


End file.
